why didn't Sen. Geary get bodied at the end of part II along with Roth and Freddy?

was he no longer an enemy after Mike was done with him?

i kinda thought he'd get murked too. even for talkin reckless about Mikes family.

After the setup in the brothel with the prostitute, an alive Geary was more valuable to Michael than a dead Geary. After that set-up Michael had Geary on his pocket. That was Michael's revenge for Geary's cheap shot remark about Michael and his family.

As for Geary's statement at the senate commission hearings :

"Uh, Mr. CHAIRMAN -- I would like to verify the witness's statement. For years now a growing number of my constituents have been of Italian decent -- and I have come to know them well. They have honored me with their support and with their friendship. Indeed I can proudly say some of my very best friends are Italian-Americans. However, Mr. CHAIRMAN, at this time very unfortunately I have to leave these proceedings in order to preside over a very important committee of my own committee. But before I leave I do want to say this. These hearings on the Mafia are in no way what-so-ever a slur upon the great Italian people. Because I can state from my own knowledge and experience -- that Italian-Americans are among the most loyal -- most law-abiding -- patriotic, hard working American citizens in this land. And it would be a shame. Mr. CHAIRMAN if we allowed a few rotten apples to bring a bad name to the whole barrel. Because from the time of the great Christopher Columbus up through the time of Enrico Fermi right up to the present day -- Italian-Americans have been pioneers in building and defending our great nation. They are the soil o' the earth and one of the backbones of this country."

I guess it depends on how you interpret Geary's statement. Was he dissing Michael by making that statement and then excusing himself from the hearings? Some people look at it that way.

I look at it differently. I've always interpreted Geary's statement as one that was made by Geary to attempt to show Michael that he (Geary) was trying to help to clear Michael's name. Before Geary's statement the Chairman ask Michael about his father being addressed as Godfather in certain circles and Michael replies :

"Godfather is a term -- that was used by his friends -- one of affection -- one of respect."

And immedeatly after Michael gives that answer Geary replies with "Uh, Mr. CHAIRMAN -- I would like to verify the witness's statement." and goes onto say what I posted above.

To me he was defending the fact that Micahel was being accused of being a Mob boss. To me Geary made that statement on Michael's behalf and then excused himself from the proceedings as not to be put into a situation where he could possibly hurt Michael.

Had Geary made that statement to hurt Michael, as some here believe, then there is no doubt in my mind that Michael would have "settled all family business" and would have had Geary taken care of along with Fredo, Roth and Pentangeli.

At least that's my opinion.



Don Cardi

DC I agree with you on this one. It would be politically indefensible for Geary to support Michael in the hearings, so the best he could do was excuse himself from them and on the way out the door say some platitudes about Italian people and excuse himself. I am sure he figured that michael had a plan to deal with it, and he just wanted to stay clear of the whole thing. That would have been good enough for Michael, who I imagine could have used Geary later on to get at Questadt and the chairman of the committeee.

I concur as well. I think the scene showed that Geary was in Michael's pocket. I also think that he excused himself because he was also worried about putting himself in an awkward position.

This scene moreover reveals Geary as the jellyfish he is. Remember when he told Michael that he didn't like his kind with the silk suits and greasy hair, and contrast it with his praise of Italian-Americans.

I agree. Political contacts were the Corleone family's bread and butter, even more so than gambling. As long as Geary wised up, which the senate hearing implies he did, Michael would have used him to his advantage for as long as he possibly could have.

dang, these are all awesome points..i thought of that too but i always felt like he shoulda got it, you know.

He also didn't mind taking money from the man with the silk suits, did he??

I've always thought that FFC made jabs at how "Americans" treated Italians, and used characters like Geary to do it. He also did it McCluskey, the judgment at the Bonasera trial, and so on. That "Americans" were so clean on the surface, that they looked down on the Mafia, but that they were just as corrupt.

I always found it interesting that Michael never appeared unnerved by an ethnic slur. Whether it came from McCluskey, Moe or Geary, he accepted it because, I guess, it didn't pertain to business. I think he was impervious to the sting of an ethnic insult.

Oh, I think it angered Micael plenty, especially Kay and her "Sicilian Thing" remark, showing what she really thought of his ethnicity. I think that Michael never showed anger, period. He would never respond to any insult, just like Vito with Signor Roberto. Michael and Vito both found anger counterproductive, a lesson that Sonny should've learned.

Yes, of all the kids, Michael was most like his father. He had his intelligence and temperament.

I take a different view:
As I've posted before: I believe Geary was part of the plot to set Michael up for five counts of perjury. As a member of the committee he had to know that they were holding Pentangeli in reserve. He asked Cici if he ever got a direct order from Michael or if there was always a buffer. When Cici said no, he never got a direct order, Michael relaxed: he thought Cici was their top witness against him, and since Cici said he never got a direct order, the way was clear for Michael to lie under oath. Then the hammer fell on him. IMO, Geary deliberately set him up for perjury by asking Cici that "buffer" question.

I also believe Geary was being two-faced in his statements--the all-American political two-face. When he said "...these hearings on the Mafia are not a reflection on the great Italian-American people..." who did he mean by "Mafia" if not Michael? And when he said, "...it'd be a shame for a few bad apples to spoil the whole bunch," who did he mean if not Michael?

So, Art, your question is a good one. I, too, wonder why Michael wouldn't have whacked Geary--Michael was far too smart not to have figured out that Geary helped set him up. Why would Geary risk it? Revenge for that brothel setup. As we saw elsewhere in the Trilogy, seekers after revenge seldom think through the consequences; and anyway, the only thinking Geary did was with his dick.

Ahhh, I was waiting for my friend Turnbull to interject his thoughts on this subject.

Turnbull, I know that in the past you have posted that you felt Geary was trying to get even with Michael by saying what he said at those hearings. But if that is the case, then why, when Michael said "Godfather is a term -- that was used by his friends -- one of affection -- one of respect," did Geary immedeatly respond with "Uh, Mr. CHAIRMAN -- I would like to verify the witness's statement."
Why would Geary "verify" a statement by Michael if he was out to get Michael?



Don Cardi

Geary belonged to Michael, just as Questadt belonged to Roth. Also, despite the crude insults and snubs we see toward Michael and his family at the beginning of the film...he really didn't do anything to warrant being whacked. Finally, as Cardi said he was far more valuable alive than dead.

Aside from all that...Michael probably knew that it would be quite stupid and unproductive to have the blood of a U.S. Senator on his hands.

Apple

Very interesting thoughts. I never considered that.

Could it be possible that Questadt, who belonged to Roth, knew that Geary was in bed with Michael. I would have to think that Questadt knew Geary was a guest at Anthony's Communion and that Michael resided in Geary's state and spent time with Geary in Havana, and that they were tied together in gambling.

Could Questadt, who seemed much sharper than Geary, have deliberately withheld the fact that they had Frankie in custody from Geary? Perhaps keep Geary in the dark.

I also found Geary's comment about the Mafia and a few bad apples to be troubling. It certainly carries great significance under your keen analysis. I guess I always attributed it to an awkwardness in his speech. I had felt that he was so insincere in his homage to Italian Americans that his true feelings briefly surfaced when referring to the Mafia and the bad apples.

I'm going to have to watch that scene over again.

I never looked at her comments as a racial slur. I don't think she had a problem with his ethnicty. She had a problem with the family business and actually put up with a lot.

I think she was repulsed by the way of life that Michael had originally condemned, but later embraced.

Klyd, I have to disagree. I think it was a racial slur, especially the way she strung out her S's.

Klyd,

I have to agree with SB here. She emphasizes "This Sicilian Thing" as if taking a shot at sicilians and obviously trying to provoke Michael in using that phrase.




Don Cardi

Interesting. Possible. But I doubt it. A liklier scenario, IMO:
Congressional committees schedule hearings months in advance, the better to enable members to milk the publicity value. Roth would have heard about the Mafia hearings and would have been concerned that the hearings might involve him one way or another. He'd also have heard that Questadt was "for sale." So, I'm figuring, he bribed Questadt handomely to keep him informed.
Roth was in Cuba when the Frankie garroting went down, and probably didn't hear that it failed--he was busy with other things, and had a stroke. But Questadt learned about Frankie's survival immediately through his contacts in the NYC police with whom he'd been working on the Mafia investigation. BING! Questadt saw dollar signs.
As you say, Klydon, he was sharp. He immediately hatched the perjury trap. He convinced the committee chair that he and his fellow Senators could get famous by using Frankie to trap Michael. He convinced the chairman to lean on the FBI and the NYC police to keep Frankie's survival secret and turn him over to the Feds. Meanwhile, Roth had escaped Cuba and recovered from his stroke and attempted assassination. Alerted about Frankie's survival by Questadt, Roth fed him incriminating evidence on Michael and anything else he knew, including the famous brothel murder that implicated Senator Geary, a member of the committee.
Geary was the key player. Questadt would work the brothel-murder angle to get Questadt to trap Michael. Questadt would tell Geary: “Here’s your chance to get revenge on Michael Corleone.” The unspoken threat: “I know about that brothel murder—if you don’t go along, you’ll be exposed.” It seems to me that this complex plot would work far better if Questadt were informed about it and on board. Withholding it from him would be very risky--he'd be pissed about being left out, and might even be tempted to tip off Michael in return.

I think that one thing we fail to account for is people's anger when they inveigh about a person or a person's actions. That was exemplified recently in the form of Kramer's outburst against a couple of black guys. He was angry, justifiably or not, and expressed his anger in a way that he felt would hurt those guys, would get back at them - race. As a paisan, I would expect that someone's anger at me might be expressed in the form of an ethnic slur. But I would have enough presence of mind to understand that such expression does not necessarily have its roots in ethnic prejudice. If I were mad at a womean, I might express that anger by calling her a Bit*h. But, that expression does not have its root in mysoginism.

Kay was angry and justifiably so. Her husband was a bold-faced murderer. Her words were intended to inform and hurt. She used her linguistics to express that anger. It didn't have anything to do with ethnic prejudice.

On the other hand, I think that Geary's statements were an effort to mitigate what was, in hindsight, one hell of an error on his part. He was scared and he tried using words to mitigate his circumstamces. As an anglo unsteeped in ethnic traditions and, in this case, Sicilian tradition, he clumsily conveyed the message to Michael that, while not being Michael's friend, he was no longer his enemy, that he had been admonished and now knew the limits of his power as a US Senator.

Exactly, Klydon.
Kay wasn't prejudiced against Sicilians. She may have had concerns about Michael's family, but Michael did his best in word and deed (as in joining the Marines against his father's wishes) to convince her he wanted no part of the family biz. She was obviously wary when Michael returned from Sicily and told her he was now in the family biz. But she let herself be persuaded that "my father's way of doing things is over," and that "the Corleone family will be completely legitimate in five years."
But by the time of Anthony's party, she saw that her illusion failed--that Michael's Mob business was (in the phrase used in old-time divorce cases based on adultery) "alienating his affection" from her. The final straw was the Tahoe machine gun attack, which could have killed her and the kids. So, when she hissed at Michael, in Washington, that "this S-s-s-s-icilan thing must end," she was really referring not to Michael's Sicilian ethnicity, or uttering a slur as did Moe Green, Woltz and Geary, but a denunciation of the Mafia's pull on Michael--as you put it so aptly, the way of life that Michael had originally condemned, but later embraced.

I'm not so sure. The committee's counsel was owned by Roth, and the committee chairman was following his lead. In congress there are many members who are total lightweights, and both houses are controlled by relatively few members. Questadt had to know Geary had been compromised by the Corleones, and it had to be well known he was a womanizer and that he had unclean hands. It is possible that he would not have known of the perjury trap. When Geary made his speech the chairman seemed more than a little annoyed.

To me, her comments were indisputably racist. If she meant the family business or Michael's way of life then why didn't she say so?

Even if that is what she meant, calling mafia involvement a "Sicilian thing" is inherently racist and stereotypical, the same way as referring to someone's crack addition as "this black thing" or someone's alcoholism "this Irish thing" would be.